Concerning the OP. There is a lot that is contributing to the decline of the forum. I know the typical response is that the moderators are to blame, (its always the guy in authority don'tcha know.) and maybe there are times when over moderation occurs. That said, I've also noticed that there is a group that somehow manages to find themselves in almost every active thread. A good part of the time, they end up carrying the thread out of bounds or off topic, stir up animosity against the mods who then close that thread, only to do it again in someone else's topic. The animosity is a bit of a problem, when I returned, I took one action; (I'm an old mod, I still expect a level of decorum and respect, I don't expect to see TT nonsense in a P&W or Tavern post) and several people went off the deep end. A polite PM could have resolved so much of the problem had one of the posters that took offense actually discussed the merit of keeping the thread open with me.

I think keeping an open line of discussion with the Moderators will go a long way; not just with me, but several of us, who enjoy reading much of the material you post, and wish to keep an orderly format for your discussion to take place upon. We are, at the end of the day, just volunteers trying our best to keep things rolling above the chaos. We make mistakes, we misread situations sometimes; which is why we need to work together to keep things running smoothly.

As to your point about slander, at what point does playful banter become something more? Everyone is different. I'm an old Alpha player, I can generally tell when the regulars are having some playful banter, but outside of Alpha? I'm personally not heavy handed on such things, as long as they keep it reasonable. (Look at Kepler... they do like to take a shot at each other) If you feel one or more of us is being unfair, talk to us about it. All the mods aren't forum overlords.

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Not that it matters coz mods will always be modz & have "written rules" they have to follow, but I actually think the forums are actually more interesting & entertaining than the game itselfI think most of the ppl who frequent the forums can understand what is being said is largely in banter, just an extension of in game character & not said in a serious/ personal way.maybe if the game had some way to make public comments on a persons profile then the mods would enjoy a less "slanderous" active forum.Many other online games have profile pages where you can leave open/ public messages/comments/suggestions/banter, can't see why this game couldn't do the same moving forward.

CThe animosity is a bit of a problem, when I returned, I took one action; (I'm an old mod, I still expect a level of decorum and respect, I don't expect to see TT nonsense in a P&W or Tavern post) and several people went off the deep end. A polite PM could have resolved so much of the problem had one of the posters that took offense actually discussed the merit of keeping the thread open with me.

Maybe people enjoyed you were gone this time and was upset that a disliked mod came back to be a goon without looking at how we usually do stuff nowadays \o_0/